


She Wore Flowers in her Hair

by anarchycox



Series: Missing: Four Demons (If Found Return to Hell) [17]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Conversations, Gen, Police Officer Roxy, Roxy Morton POV, flirtation, serial killer subplot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 00:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20805836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: Roxy is trying to cope with work and fraying around the edges. She takes small comfort in a cafe near her house with a beautiful barista Tilde, who she can't figure out if she is flirting or not.





	She Wore Flowers in her Hair

Roxy gave the ticket to the car, and as she walked away she heard someone cursing her. She would have liked to have cursed back, but she was already on the shit detail of giving out tickets at 2am, even though she was well above this job.

Apparently if you called your boss certain names in front of everyone, it got you in trouble. At least he hadn’t bothered to google translate what she had said in Yiddish, then she would have really been in trouble. Of course if her godfather found out what she had said he’d be rather put out too - but Auntie Elaine, who had taught her the words when she 8 because she’d need them one day, would approve.

She walked by an alley, and would have kept walking, but she could smell blood and shit. Roxy paused and went back. She called out, “Hello, this is Sargeant Morton, is anyone there?” She stepped a foot in and the smell grew overwhelming. With a bizarre hint of sweet, rotting flesh was sweet until it sank into your nose and never left. “Hello?” Her flashlight barely illuminated anything but it was easy enough to see once she got passed the dumpster. “I’m sorry,” she said softly, and carefully stepped back out and called it in.

The Inspector arrived and dismissed her, but she wasn’t going anywhere. She made notes listened to everyone, and saw the patterns others were refusing to acknowledge. When the inspector went passed she could not stop herself, “you know what this is.”

“Easy enough to recognize a dead body,” he replied.

She bit back the thousand curses on her tongue. “6 now.” She saw that stilled him. “How many more before you admit it?”

“This isn’t telly, do you know how rare serial killers are?” he hissed. A repeat of the argument that got her put on night shift ticket duty. “Do you know what panic we have on our hands if we say anything? And we can’t even say for sure, because it is always different.”

“It isn’t, you just refuse to see.” Roxy glared at him. “One hour, and I can prove it to you.”

“Tomorrow, 10am,” he said. 

“Understood.” She knew this was her chance, and well fuck sleep. Luckily there was an all night coffee shop not too far from her flat. She clocked out, and went to the shop. She flushed a little as she saw that Tilde was working. She hadn’t been able to make rhyme or reason of Tilde’s shift hours, just knew that most times she went in Tilde was behind the counter. 

Roxy thought she was so beautiful, but never did more than smile because only a complete arsehole flirted with someone working who was obligated to remember you. Roxy went in and to the counter. “You still have that muffin I like.”

“Of course,” Tilde said in that voice that lilted, and always made Roxy smile. “You keep such odd hours, Roxy. I think decaf yes?”

“No, big presentation tomorrow, convince my boss of a thing.”

“Would you like me to help with that? I’d love to help you.”

“By putting a shot of espresso into my coffee, it would be appreciated.” Roxy looked at the case. “And the muffin.”

“So coffee with espresso shot, 3.25,” Tilde said.

“The muffin,” Roxy was surprised, Tilde never screwed up an order.

Tilde handed her the muffin. “What muffin?” she winked.

Roxy flushed a little and hurried out of the shop, coffee and muffin both done before she reached her flat. She had a too hot shower, which was making her too mellow and she switched the water to bracing. When she stepped out she lotioned, the habit so ingrained from her mother. She was a complete cunt, but knew her skin care. Roxy drank an energy drink, and she was seeing colours more saturated than they were and got to work. She put together a comprehensive file, cross referencing case files, a power point more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. She had another shower and dressed carefully. It was a tough call between the officialness of her uniform and a suit that her uncle had bought her from Burberry.

But she thought the suit matched her needs better. She put her hair up in a bun, and kept the makeup subtle. She was having minor auditory hallucinations, but it was fine. She was directed to a meeting room and at 10:02 am was giving her presentation.

She watched her superiors all agree with her findings and give all her work to her boss and he listed everyone he wanted for the task force. She was not on the list. It was only when the Superintendent made a comment that he dismissively said fine and she was at least on the team. 

Her boss asked her to fetch coffee. 

Roxy excused herself and went to the locker room. She changed into trackies and sent a new record on the gun range. She then went to her uncle’s house and went upstairs and crawled into a bed. “Men suck,” she said and felt a kiss against her head. “Thank you, Aunt Ruth.” When she woke up 9 hours later she could smell pasta. She stumbled downstairs. “Coffee?” 

“No,” Percival said firmly. “I can smell it in your pores.” He passed her a glass of water and she tried to glare, but she was sure a sloth would look more fierce than she did right now. He kissed her head and put a plate of lasagna in front of her.

“Yessss,” she said and dove in.

“You want to tell me?”

“Not yet.”

“Very well. I do have some news?”

She had only heard him sound so hesitant a few times before. “Oh?”

“He ended up having to travel for work a bit, but Harry and I have our first date booked.”

She watched the blush stain his neck a bit, and smiled. “You know I meant to run a background check on him, but it slipped my mind.” Deja vu, because she had had that thought before, wanting to run a check on Harry but never doing it. That bothered her a bit, tomorrow she’d look into him. “You excited?”

“I am, I think I found a suitable location. He won’t feel too out of place in a suit, but casual enough that Eggsy can sit at the bar and be able to see us.”

“I’m sorry? The thug is going to be watching you?” Roxy ate a little more, and ignored the look her godfather gave her. Or tried to. “Sorry, former thug,” she said.

“He is a junior tailor now, Roxy, and in fact I have asked him to make you a suit.”

“I’m not letting a former thug near my tits,” she said. “Even money he gropes.”

“That was beneath you,” he said sharply. She flinched, he seldom used that particular voice with her. “Can people not change?”

“Not much.”

“He has, and he has never once groped me, and based on his boyfriend I am far more his type than your tits.”

“You saying tits is weird.”

“You being unkind is weird.”

And didn’t that fucking hurt. She put her fork down, couldn’t eat anymore. “I’m sorry,” she said. She looked at him. Roxy realized that she had been so buried in her work, she hadn’t actually been asking Percival about his life much. “Tell me about him.”

“Who?”

“Eggsy, Harry. If you know Eggsy’s boyfriend, this isn’t just a client thing. They are your friends. I don’t know who your friends are. How did that happen?” She felt a little hollow. “I know everything about you.”

He gave her a fond smile. “Not everything. That would be the weird thing. Actually, the three of them are a bit of odd ducks. Dramatic. Harry most of all, but I like his drama.”

“Is he handsome?”

“Very, all three are. They are a unit, in a way I don’t quite comprehend, but is enjoyable to watch. I think Harry and Merlin may have been in the military together as youths.”

“Merlin is Eggsy’s boyfriend?”

“Hmm,” Percival agreed. “He can see Aunt Ruth and Auntie Elaine.”

Roxy felt almost a laugh next to her. “That’s interesting.”

“He and Aunt Ruth seem to be bonding. He stores romance novels here, they keep moving about.”

“They’ve gotten stronger.”

“Since he stopped by. I have decided to ignore this fact. Eggsy is a good man, takes care of them when they get silly.”

“Why is he coming on your date?”

“Harry was in a...poor relationship for several decades. Part of us taking so long to do this was him worrying about history repeating itself.”

Roxy felt her spine snap straight. “He is so foolish to think you would hurt him? He -”

“Was abused emotionally, physically, sexually for decades, kept a virtual prisoner in his home and the tailor shop.” He looked at her. “He is allowed a security blanket.”

“Fuck, I just keep stepping into it tonight.”

“I feel we might need a conversation about work life balance, my love.”

“They finally listened to me, and are investigating this as a serial killer. I’m sort of on the team.”

“Don’t lose yourself.”

“I don’t mind, too much has been lost already.” Roxy shrugged. “My time versus someone else’s life? Easy trade.”

“I raised you too well.”

“Now now, my parents raised me.” They both snorted at that. “Mother sent me a terse email about Father’s birthday party.”

“I received a ‘I am sure you are busy and unavailable to attend’ email.”

“Wanna be my date?” Roxy would relish the look on her mother’s face - if it could move, she was likely to botox before the party.

“No, I have not gone out of my way to piss them off since you were legally an adult. Not much they can do to me anymore. I may have gotten your father a certificate for the Hair Club for Men.”

Roxy barked out a laugh at that. “Nice.” She took their plates and scraped them off before putting them in the dishwasher. “Percival?”

“Yes my dear?”

“Can we watch a movie?”

“Of course.” 

She put her head on his lap, and he stroked her hair. “I’m scared,” she whispered half way through. “I am not going to be enough.”

“That is your mother talking,” he said. “You, dear girl, are always enough, more than. You’ll stand true. Always.”

“Like you.”

“Better than me, any day, every day.”

“No such thing,” she swore, and they watched the rest of the movie in silence.

*

She was fraying at the edges. She knew it, but she couldn’t stop. There had been another body, and she was so close to seeing the patterns, what they needed but it was always out of her grasp. 

Even seeing Tilde couldn’t make her smile that day. Roxy sat at the corner table and read her private notes, and tried, tried so fucking hard to make sense of it. Her mind drifted and she remembered it had been a month and she still hadn’t run that background check on Harry Hart.

She flipped to a new page in her journal, “Check Harry Hart, Kingsman,” she muttered out loud as she wrote, hoping that would fix it in her brain.

“I know that name,” Tilde said. She had a coffee pot in her hand. “Refill?”

“Thanks. How do you know that name?” Roxy looked at her. “Do you know him?”

“No, I am not so fortunate to have been noticed by thus,” she smiled.

“Are your eyes a different colour?” For a moment, they were darker, almost swirling.

“The light.” Tilde smiled at her. “Let me help you, Roxy. All you have to do is ask for my help.”

“Thanks, but this is not the sort of thing you can help with. Other than keep the coffee coming.”

“Of course.” Tilde squeezed her shoulder, and Roxy almost swooned. “I am here. Always if you need me. Just ask.”

“Thanks.” Roxy looked down at her blank page and couldn’t remember what she wanted to write there.

*

It was so late, and she was so tired and empty. She hadn’t seen her godfather for two weeks, and had been ignoring his concerned voice mails and emails. That had hurt, but she couldn’t see him, he’d freak out at how she looked. Roxy had gone to his temple a couple times, needing the peace she found there, but even that wasn’t helping her.

They were going to disband the task force, they were making no headway. It was all going to fall apart. And more people were going to die. Roxy calmly went to the bathroom and threw up. She washed her face and rinsed her mouth. It was pouring rain when she went outside, and it felt good. Roxy walked and walked and found herself at the coffee shop.

When she stepped in Tilde cursed. “You fool, this is England, you have a million umbrellas!”

“The rain felt good,” she said. “But I could use something warm to drink.”

“No coffee, cider,” Tilde insisted.

“Fine,” Roxy sighed. She couldn’t fight, but she noticed something. "You have flowers in your hair. You always do."

"Earthly flowers are so pretty, I love them," Tilde said.

"They look good, they always look good." Roxy tried to shake it off, focus on the drink. She thought Tilde said she was getting a cider. “Cider heal a heart?”

“I’ll add whip cream to the top.”

Roxy laughed a bit. “That will do it.” She went to the table she sat at usually; the cafe was quiet, only one other table occupied, and fuck the man was gorgeous. Roxy didn’t like men, but god she would tap that - there was something compelling about him.

And he was looking intently at Tilde.

Possessively.

Bugger, maybe Tilde had a boyfriend.

Tilde brought the drink over. “You need rest.”

“I”m okay. Is that your boyfriend?” Roxy glanced over at the man who was now typing at his laptop.

Tilde laughed. “No, no he isn’t. He is my boss.”

“Oh, I’ve never seen the owner of the cafe. Bit young?”

“No, my other boss. He said it was coming, and he wanted to see it. I’m honoured that he wants to be here.”

“Sure,” Roxy was a bit lost but let it go. “Tilde?”

“Yes, Roxy?”

“I like the way you say my name.” Roxy winced. “I’m sorry that was rude.”

“I like saying your name.”

“Oh.” 

“Rest. Enjoy the whip cream.”

She watched Tilde go back behind the counter, and fuss with the display. Roxy drank a little and sighed. Her phone beeped. Sure enough, she was being assigned back to normal duties tomorrow. Roxy would have wept if she had the energy for it.

Roxy looked at her drink. “I swear, I would sell my soul, just for one fucking break in this case.” She closed her eyes and just ached.

*

The boss smiled and closed the laptop. He looked at Tilde and nodded to her. She bowed and went to Roxy’s table.

The boss disappeared, Naya’il had this well in hand. Her human form really was quite pretty. And she made one hell of a cup of coffee.   
  



End file.
